After serving as Allen’s assistant coach for five years, Whitney Shaw was finally able to celebrate her first victory as a collegiate head coach on Monday night — in a high school gym.
Although the Red Devils were not able to open their season in their own gymnasium due to construction, Allen fans still packed the stands at Iola High to watch Shaw and her Allen volleyball squad sweep Friends University JV in three sets (25-19, 25-22, 25-23).
“It feels really good that we saw a lot of things we worked on in the past 20 days and a lot of things we still need to work on,” Shaw said.
Allen’s middle blockers and libero, two positions that Shaw said needed the most work heading into the season opener, both put up good showings after three weeks of practice.
“Our middles stepped it up,” the first-year head coach said.
“They had more kills than I expected. It was a balanced attack all the way across the board.”
Shaw said she had been looking for a player to step up for the libero position and anchor the Red Devils’ back row.
She ended up starting freshman Joely Roe, who finished the night with a team-high 23 digs on defense.
Although the battle for the libero slot is not over, Roe is out in front of the competition after an impressive performance Monday night, Shaw said.
Allen’s offense was led by freshman Andi Dowell and sophomore Carly Jackson, who had 11 and 10 kills respectively. Raquel West, the team’s only sophomore setter, had a team-high 18 assists.
The Red Devils dominated most of the match against the Falcons, trailing only once in three sets. When the Red Devils were behind 23-21 in the third set, they didn’t wait long to regain the lead.
After Shaw called a timeout, Allen notched four straight kills to take the set and the game in a straight sweep.
Because her team had the lead for the majority of the night, Shaw added that the players may have gotten a little too comfortable at certain points of the match. However, when the Red Devils needed to step up, they did.
“They’re pretty hard on themselves,” Shaw said. “We can’t wait around for them to give us points, we’ve got to continue to earn all of ours. So it was just that urgency they had at the end.”
With the victory, Allen heads into its first conference match of the year with some much needed momentum. When the Red Devils face off against Labette at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Parsons, they will see a much different opponent than the Friends University JV team they played Monday.
Unlike Friends, Labette has some height in its middle blockers, so Shaw will work with her team creating more combination plays before taking the floor Wednesday.
“Oh my gosh, I hope (this win) helps a lot come Wednesday because we need the momentum,” Shaw said.
Allen volleyball wins opener
